The Girls Are Back in Business!

by Pa Rock
Chicken Rancher

Several weeks ago the egg operation here at Rock’s Roost really hit a slump.   Some of the hens took to hiding their eggs various places around the farm, and Thor, my egg-sucking Great Pyrenees farm dog, usually managed to find them before I did.  Then, when I had located all of the hiding spots and finally gotten Thor under control, most of the hens seemed to decide that if they couldn’t lay their eggs wherever they wanted, they would just go on sabbatical and quit laying altogether.

I had eight laying hens who should have been producing close to eight eggs a day, but the average daily yield sank to about four – or less.  One day the output of the eight ladies was only one egg - total!

I had a few young hens getting ready to begin laying in September.    They gradually found their way to the nesting boxes just as the older girls began to regroup and come back to work.   Now I have fourteen hens that are laying, and the egg numbers are on the upswing.

The past four days I have gathered a dozen eggs a day!  That is a record for our little endeavor.  If they keep this up I will have to provide a suitable reward.  I’m thinking of possibly piping country music –or Foghorn Leghorn videos – into the henhouse!

Nothing is too good for the girls at Rock’s Roost!